His revolutionary approach to the technique of painting in oil - relatively new in early sixteenth century Italy - enabled him to reinvent completely the art of picturing reality. By handling rich, luminous colour in a new, expressive way, he created dramatic and psychological depth in his figures which makes them live and breathe on the canvas. A Titian painting not only intoxicates and seduces us in a very sensual way with its ravishing colour and gorgeous textures, it also draws us forcefully into the psychological drama unfolding on the canvas. Like Shakespeare, Titian's work tells us about the human condition just as vitally today as it did in his own time.

Titian, often referred to as "the prince of painters and the painter of princes", was the first Venetian artist to achieve fame throughout Europe in his own lifetime, By the time he died, in his late eighties, after a long and astoundingly prolific career, Titian was one of the richest painters in Italy. During his lifetime he achieved celebrity status, constantly in demand by the rich and powerful of Europe to paint pictures for them that enhanced their prestige, impressed their friends, celebrated their success and also gave them enormous sensual pleasure.

Titian's worldly fame was matched by the deep admiration and respect of his friends, fellow artists and intellectuals. Titian is often described as the "painter's painter" - his use of colour, in particular, has always provided rich inspiration, and he has never been out of fashion artistically.

Born in the late 1480s in the Italian Dolomites, Tiziano Vecellio arrived in Venice at the age of about ten as an apprentice artist, and studied with Giovanni Bellini, the most important Venetian painter, who was starting to realize the possibilities of rich, luminous oil paint. Titian also learnt from Giorgione, who used colour and atmospheric light to create evocative, poetic landscapes. We can see both Bellini and Giorgione's influence in the rich colour and warm, serene light of Titian's 1510 Holy Family with Shepherd. After Bellini's death, in 1516, Titian was awarded the position of official painter to the Venetian Republic. Titian's first major religious commission, the Assumption of the Virgin altarpiece in the Church of the Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari in Venice, established his reputation securely in 1518, after initial public shock at the painting's huge scale and controversially dramatic, realistic figures.